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Augusta Browne: From Musical Prodigy to Musical Pilgrim in Nineteenth-Century America
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 June 2014
Abstract
Augusta Browne Garrett composed at least two hundred piano pieces, songs, duets, hymns, and sacred settings between her birth in Dublin, Ireland, around 1820, and her death in Washington, D.C., in 1882. Judith Tick celebrated Browne as the “most prolific woman composer in America before 1870” in her landmark study American Women Composers before 1870. Browne, however, cast an enduring shadow as an author as well, publishing two books, a dozen poems, several Protestant morality tracts, and more than sixty music essays, nonfiction pieces, and short stories. By means of her prose publications, Augusta Browne “put herself into the text—as into the world, into history—by her own movement,” as feminist writer Hélène Cixous urged of women a century later. Browne maintained a presence in the periodical press for four decades in a literary career that spanned music journalism, memoir, humor, fiction, poetry, and Christian devotional literature, but one essay, “The Music of America” (1845), generated attention through the twentieth century. With much of her work now easily available in digitized sources, Browne's life can be recovered, her music experienced, and her prose reassessed, which taken together yield a rich picture of the struggles, successes, and opinions of a singular participant and witness in American music of her era.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 8 , Issue 2: Musical Women in Nineteenth-Century America , May 2014 , pp. 189 - 218
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Society for American Music 2014
References
References
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Brooklyn EagleGoogle Scholar
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Home JournalGoogle Scholar
Masonic MirrorGoogle Scholar
New England GalaxyGoogle Scholar
New York HeraldGoogle Scholar
New-York TribuneGoogle Scholar
The SunGoogle Scholar
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Browne, Augusta. “A Chapter on Musical Sentiments and Sympathies.” Musical World and Times 6/14 (6 August 1853): 211–12.Google Scholar
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Browne, Augusta. “The Music of America.” The Musician and General Intelligencer of Cincinnati 2 (February 1848): 21–23.Google Scholar
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Browne, Augusta. “The Musician's Adventure.” The Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine 3 (June 1845): 235–36.Google Scholar
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Eigeldinger, Jean-Jacques. Chopin: Pianist and Teacher as Seen by His Pupils. Ed. Howat, Roy. Trans. Naomi Shohet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Gould, Nathaniel D.Church Music in America, Comprising Its History and Its Peculiarities at Different Periods, with Cursory Remarks on Its Legitimate Use and Its Abuse; with Notices of the Schools, Composers, Teachers, and Societies. Boston: A. N. Johnson, 1853; repr. ed., New York: AMS Press, 1972.Google Scholar
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Jackson, Myles W. “Physics, Machines and Musical Pedagogy in Nineteenth-Century Germany.” History of Science 42 (2004): 371–481.Google Scholar
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Liszt_schede. PDF finding aid at www.casanatense.it/images/stories/. . ./Liszt_schede.doc.Google Scholar
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“The Logierian System of Musical Education,” Baltimore Gazette and Daily Advertiser, 25 October 1834.Google Scholar
Loesser, Arthur. Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954.Google Scholar
Logier, Johann Bernhard. A System of the Science of Music and Practical Composition, Incidentally Comprising What Is Usually Understood by the Term Thorough Bass. London: J. Green, 1827; repr. ed., New York: Da Capo Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Madeira, Louis Cephas, and Goepp, Philip Henry. Annals of Music in Philadelphia and History of the Musical Fund Society. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1896; repr., New York: Da Capo Press, 1973.Google Scholar
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Browne Garrett, Augusta. Letter to Charles Hodge, 28 July 1862. Charles Hodge papers, Manuscripts Division, Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.Google Scholar
Browne, David. Letter to John Quincy Adams, 26 September 1820. National Archives RG 59: General Records of the Dept. of State, Misc. Letters Received, 1 Jan. 1817–30 July 1815 (Microfilm Publication M179, Reel 49), File B, entry Browne, D. 26 Sep. 1820.Google Scholar
Browne, David. Land petition of David Brown, 7 May 1821. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Land Petitions RS108, 1821, F4189.Google Scholar
Browne, David. Letters to Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim, 26 October 1812 and 1 March 1813. National Library of Ireland, Killadoon papers, MS36058/7.Google Scholar
American TravellerGoogle Scholar
Boston CourierGoogle Scholar
Brooklyn EagleGoogle Scholar
Christian Register and Boston ObserverGoogle Scholar
Home JournalGoogle Scholar
Masonic MirrorGoogle Scholar
New England GalaxyGoogle Scholar
New York HeraldGoogle Scholar
New-York TribuneGoogle Scholar
The SunGoogle Scholar
Board of Music Trade of the United States of America, New York. Complete Catalogue of Sheet Music and Musical Works Published by the Board of Music Trade of the United States of America, 1870. New York: The Board, 1871.Google Scholar
B[rowne]. G[arrett]., A[ugusta]. Can I Play Cards? Tract (Methodist Episcopal Church) no. 137. New York: Hunt & Eaton, [n.d.]; Cincinnati: Cranston & Curtis, [n.d.].Google Scholar
Browne Garrett, Augusta. “‘Benedic. Anima Mea.’ A Voluntary on Sacred Music.” Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine 6 (February 1880): 205–8.Google Scholar
Browne Garrett, Augusta. “Card-Playing Christians.” Evangelical Repository and United Presbyterian Review n.s. 12/10: 675–77; reprinted, n.s. 12/11 (April 1874): 740–42.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “A Chapter on Musical Sentiments and Sympathies.” Musical World and Times 6/14 (6 August 1853): 211–12.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “The Divine Origin of Music, and Musical Instruments.” Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine 4 (October 1845): 145–48; 4 (November 1845): 218–20; and 4 (December 1845): 269–72.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. Hamilton, the Young Artist. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo & Co., 1852.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “Music from Heaven.” Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine 4 (September 1845): 110.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “The Music of America.” The Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine 4 (July 1845): 37–38.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “The Music of America.” The Musician and General Intelligencer of Cincinnati 2 (February 1848): 21–23.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “The Music of Our Neighborhood. Morning.” Sartain's Union Magazine 3 (December 1848): 253–58.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “Musical Thoughts.” The Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine 3 (January 1845): 68–69.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “The Musician's Adventure.” The Columbian Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine 3 (June 1845): 235–36.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “Negro Minstrelsy.” Christian Advocate and Journal 29/4 (26 January 1845): 13.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “On the Expectations and Prospects of a Musical Professor (By Carl Maria von Weber).” Musical World and Times 8/4 (28 January 1854): 39–40.Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “Our Neighborhood. Evening.” Home Journal (8 December 1849) (whole issue no. 200; 8 December 1851).Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “Our Neighborhood. Evening, Concluded.” Home Journal (15 December 1849) (whole issue no. 291; 15 December 1851).Google Scholar
Browne, Augusta. “The Picture-Critic's Portrait.” Home Journal (29 May and 5 June 1852).Google Scholar
Browne Garrett, Augusta. The Precious Stones of the Heavenly Foundations. With Illustrative Selections in Prose and Verse. New York: Sheldon & Company, 1859.Google Scholar
Browne Garrett, Augusta. “Reveries of a Musician.” Columbian L&G 8 (July 1847): 26–27; and 8 (October 1847): 185–87.Google Scholar
Browne Garrett, Augusta. “Wanted: An Organist.” Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine 9 (March 1881): 321–27.Google Scholar
Browne Garrett, Augusta. “A Woman on Women; with Reflections on the Other Sex.” Knickerbocker Monthly 61 (January 1863): 10–20.Google Scholar
Browne, David. A Self Defence: With a Refutation of Calumnies, Misrepresentations, and Fallacies, Which Have Appeared in Several Public Prints, Evidently Intended to Convey False Impressions of the “Logierian Diplomatic Institution;” as Now Established in England, Germany, France, Spain, East and West Indies, Africa &c. Boston: Browne's Musical Seminary, 1828.Google Scholar
Cavarra, Angela Adriana. Donna è–: l'universo femminile nelle raccolte casanatensi. Milano: Aisthesis, 1998.Google Scholar
Chase, Gilbert. America's Music, from the Pilgrims to the Present. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955; rev. 2nd ed., New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966; rev. 3rd ed., Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Cixous, Hélène. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Trans. Cohen, Keith and Cohen, Paula. Signs 1/4 (Summer 1976): 875–93.Google Scholar
Eigeldinger, Jean-Jacques. Chopin: Pianist and Teacher as Seen by His Pupils. Ed. Howat, Roy. Trans. Naomi Shohet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Gould, Nathaniel D.Church Music in America, Comprising Its History and Its Peculiarities at Different Periods, with Cursory Remarks on Its Legitimate Use and Its Abuse; with Notices of the Schools, Composers, Teachers, and Societies. Boston: A. N. Johnson, 1853; repr. ed., New York: AMS Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Herbert, Trevor, and Barlow, Helen. Music & the British Military in the Long Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, George Pullen. White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands: The Story of the Fasola Folk, Their Songs, Singings, and “Buckwheat Notes.” Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1933; repr., New York: Dover Publications, 1965.Google Scholar
Jackson, Myles W. “Physics, Machines and Musical Pedagogy in Nineteenth-Century Germany.” History of Science 42 (2004): 371–481.Google Scholar
Jackson, Myles W. “Measuring Musical Virtuosity: Physicists, Physiologists, and the Pianist's Touch in the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of the American Liszt Society 61–62 (2010/2011): 13–40.Google Scholar
Liszt_schede. PDF finding aid at www.casanatense.it/images/stories/. . ./Liszt_schede.doc.Google Scholar
“The Light is Spreading.” The American Journal of Music and Musical Visitor 4 (30 November 1845): 126.Google Scholar
“The Logierian System of Musical Education,” Baltimore Gazette and Daily Advertiser, 25 October 1834.Google Scholar
Loesser, Arthur. Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954.Google Scholar
Logier, Johann Bernhard. A System of the Science of Music and Practical Composition, Incidentally Comprising What Is Usually Understood by the Term Thorough Bass. London: J. Green, 1827; repr. ed., New York: Da Capo Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Madeira, Louis Cephas, and Goepp, Philip Henry. Annals of Music in Philadelphia and History of the Musical Fund Society. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1896; repr., New York: Da Capo Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Mark, Michael L., and Gary, Charles L.. A History of American Music Education. New York: Schirmer Books, 1992; 2nd ed., Reston, VA: MENC, 1999.Google Scholar
Mark, Michael L., ed. Music Education: Source Readings from Ancient Greece to Today. 2nd ed., New York; London: Routledge, 2002; 3rd ed., New York; London: Routledge, 2007.Google Scholar
Miller, Bonny H. “Ladies’ Companion, Ladies’ Canon? A Century of Women Composers in American Magazines.” In Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music, ed. Cook, Susan C. and Tsou, Judy S., 156–182. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Moore, John Weeks. Appendix to Encyclopedia of Music. Containing Events and Information Occurring Since the Main Work Was Issued. Boston: O. Ditson, 1875.Google Scholar
Moore, John Weeks. Complete Encyclopaedia of Music, Elementary, Technical, Historical, Biographical, Vocal, and Instrumental. To Which Is Added an Appendix, Introducing Musical Events to 1876. Boston: O. Ditson, 1880.Google Scholar
Nixon, William. “Essay on Musical Expression.” Musician and General Intelligencer 2 (July 1848): 99–102.Google Scholar
Nixon, William. A Guide to Instruction on the Pianoforte; Designed for the Use of Both Parents and Pupils, in a Series of Short Essays, Dedicated to the Young Ladies of the Musical Seminary. Cincinnati: Josiah Drake, 1834.Google Scholar
Parker, John R.A Musical Biography: Or, Sketches of the Lives And Writings of Eminent Musical Characters. Interspersed With an Epitome of Interesting Musical Matter. Boston: Stone & Fovell, 1825.Google Scholar
Pemberton, Carol A. Lowell Mason: A Bio-Bibliography. Bio-Bibliographies in Music 11. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Pemberton, Carol A. Lowell Mason: His Life and Work. Studies in Musicology 86. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Rainbow, Bernarr. “Johann Bernhard Logier and the Chiroplast Controversy.” The Musical Times 131/1766 (April 1990): 193–96.Google Scholar
Reich, Nancy B.Clara Schumann, the Artist and the Woman. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Sartain, John. The Reminiscences of a Very Old Man, 1808–1897. New York: D. Appleton, 1897.Google Scholar
Stopp, Jacklin Bolton. “A. N. Johnson, Out of Oblivion.” American Music 3/2 (July 1985): 152–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stopp, Jacklin Bolton. “James C. Johnson and the American Secular Cantata.” American Music 28/2 (Summer 2010): 228–50.Google Scholar
Tick, Judith. American Women Composers before 1870. Studies in Musicology 57. Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1983; rev ed., Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Tick, Judith, and Beaudoin, Paul E., eds. Music in the USA: A Documentary Companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar